Kenya Drought Impact, Graft May Force Runoff Vote, Teneo Says.
Inflation rate rose to 11.5% in April, highest in five years Nation is among 30 countries considered world’s most corrupt Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta may face a runoff vote after elections in August because spiraling food inflation and an inadequate response to corruption are eroding support for his party, according to Teneo Intelligence.
Kenyatta will compete against a unified opposition and independent candidates who will draw votes away from his candidacy, increasing the likelihood for a second-round vote, Ahmed Salim, a Dubai-based analyst at the risk consultancy, said in an emailed note.
“Although opinion polls signal that Kenyatta remains the favorite, his re-election will likely be much more challenging than in 2013,” Salim said.
Kenyatta’s main opponent in the election will be former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who heads a coalition of five opposition parties.
In 2013, Kenyatta won the presidential vote with 50.07 percent of the vote, compared with 43.3 percent for Odinga, who failed on two other previous attempts to win the presidency.
Kenya’s inflation rate jumped to the highest in five years in April, climbing 11.5 percent as a drought crimped rain-fed agriculture and boosted food prices by a fifth.
The country dropped six places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index last year, ranking Kenya among 30 countries perceived as the world’s most corrupt.
“This is particularly true considering the prices of maize, sugar and vegetables have all gone up, all related to the rainfall shortage.” Kenya is scheduled to hold elections on Aug. 8.
The results must be published within seven days and any runoff should be held within 30 days of the initial election, according to the state-run Kenya Law Reform Commission’s website.

Deadline to apply for drought aid approaching.
Small businesses and agricultural cooperatives seeking financial assistance in the wake of last year’s devastating drought have until May 15 to apply with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Aid is available to farm-related and nonfarm-related entities under the agency’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which provides loans of up to $2 million with 4 percent interest rates for small businesses and 2.6 percent rates for nonprofit organizations.
Terms are up to 30 years.
The program is open to farmers in New York counties that received disaster declarations.
They are: Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chenango, Cortland, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Madison, Monroe, Niagara, Onondaga, Orleans, Oswego, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins and Wyoming counties.
With the exception of aquaculture enterprises, SBA cannot provide disaster loans to agricultural producers, farmers, or ranchers.
Nurseries are eligible to apply for economic injury disaster loans for losses caused by drought conditions.
Applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.

GITHURAI, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Now onto his third job since finishing high school a decade ago, Festus Chege is hoping his latest venture as a water vendor in Githurai, a growing suburb to the south of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, will pay off. Like many young people from poor families, the 30-year-old passed his high-school exams but lacked the funds to pursue his studies, confining him to work in the city’s fast-expanding informal sector. Kenya’s current drought, which is affecting some 3 million people across the East African country, has led to a drop in water volumes in reservoirs serving Nairobi residents. The city authorities have been forced to ration water services, giving priority to critical facilities like hospitals, as well as manufacturers. Taps in poor households are now empty of piped water most of the time, and they have little choice but to buy their water from vendors like Chege. “The water business is good,” said Chege, who has been selling water for the past four months. “People call me to supply them with water as early as 4 am.” Chege, who uses a rickshaw to transport the water, sells 20-litre drums of water for 50 shillings ($0.49) each. In a day, he can supply as many as 40 drums, earning him 2,000 shillings – more than double a government clerk’s wage. It’s five times more than what he was making last year hawking secondhand clothes. “There were days when I would find myself idle because of a lack of customers,” said Chege. That’s when he would join his friends to smoke bhang, a form of cannabis – a common pastime among young slum-dwellers who take the drug in secret dens. Now, Chege says he no longer has time to mess around with drugs because he is busy from dawn to dusk selling water. In January…

For the week ending May 7, precipitation levels were above their respective normal averages with the exception of the South Central district, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Southern Plains Regional Field Office, Oklahoma. Drought condition was rated at only 4 percent moderate to exceptional drought, down 13 points from last week. According to the OCS Mesonet, this is the lowest percentage of drought in the state since June 28, 2016. Statewide temperatures averaged…

Thanks to beneficial rainfall over the last several months, the state of Connecticut has terminated it’s first ever drought watch. On Oct. 28, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered the drought watch after three years of below-normal rainfall. Malloy directed the state Department of Administrative Services to review and act where water usage among state government facilities can be reduced when possible. He also asked that residents, businesses and local governments in these counties to voluntarily reduce their water use by around 15 percent in Fairfield and New Haven counties. The Connecticut Interagency Drought…

OROVILLE UPDATE: Spillway Work Continues, Construction Update.
The following is an update from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) about construction-related activities on the Lake Oroville Spillways Recovery project.
DWR is committed to informing the public about the work being done to repair the damaged spillways and related impacts to roads, recreation, public access and surrounding infrastructure.
DWR is improving construction access to the gated (main) spillway for construction activities by using controlled blasting to remove portions of the exposed rock.
These releases will lower Lake Oroville levels and continue making space for expected snowmelt.
The gates are anticipated to close between May 20-25 to allow for critical construction work on the main spillway.
This is expected and will not delay construction.
Sign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post!
Sign up for daily emails and get all the Notebook’s aggregated and original water news content delivered to your email box by 9AM.
Sign me up!

Unimpaired flows for the 2016-2017 water year: Region October-April Runoff (%) April Runoff (%) Sacramento Valley Index (4 rivers) 239 211 San Joaquin Valley Index (6 rivers) 307 204 Tulare Lake Basin (4 rivers) 266 229 Accumulated October – April flows for WY 2017 set a new record of 31.2 MAF for the Sacramento Valley 4 Rivers.
2415 3336 3283 (1983) SRR – Sacramento at Bend Bridge through American rivers SJR – Stanislaus through San Joaquin rivers TLR – Kings through Kern rivers Precipitation: The 93.0 inches of precipitation measured during October-April in the Northern Sierra 8-Station Index ranks as the highest total during that period in the entire record of the 8-Station Index dating back to 1921.
Precipitation for the 2016-2017 water year accumulated at the following rates of average: Hydrologic Region October-April precipitation (%) Sacramento River 198 San Joaquin River 183 Tulare Lake 177 Statewide 173 Precipitation Index Percent of Seasonal Average to Date through May 8, 2017 Northern Sierra 8-Station Index 202 (93.1 inches) San Joaquin 5-Station Index 189 (71.2 inches) Tulare Basin 6-Station Index 169 (45.9 inches) Snowpack: Snowpack is monitored using two complementary methods: automatic snow sensor (or “pillow”) readings and manual snow course measurements.
The snow sensors give us a daily snapshot of snow conditions while the manual snow course measurements provide a monthly verification of snow conditions in locations where snow has been measured in the same manner as far back as 100 years.
The snow water content in the Mokelumne, Stanislaus, Merced, San Joaquin, Kings and Kern river basins was equal to or greater than 160 percent of the April 1 average.
Of the nearly 200 snow courses that were measured during the May 1 snow survey, 16 courses recorded new May all-time records.
Courses Measured Average WC (inches) % Average April 1 % Average May 1 North Coast 9 39.1 112 160 Sacramento 65 40.9 122 169 San Joaquin Valley 55 53.6 158 192 Tulare Lake 42 41.2 157 201 North Lahontan 5 34.4 138 162 South Lahontan 7 27.6 178 207 Statewide Average (weighted) 140 181 The snowpack as of the morning of May 8, 2017 stands at the following (based on snow sensors): Region Snow Water Equivalent (inches) % of Average (Apr 1) % of Average (May 8) Northern 31.4 112 188 Central 41.9 143 204 Southern 31.7 119 171 Statewide 36.2 128 190 Weather and Climate Outlooks: The 6-day weather forecast indicates precipitation totals near 0.1 inch on Monday and Tuesday over the southern Sierra.
The forecast predicts up to 1.0 inch of precipitation over the North Coast on Thursday and up to 0.5 inch of precipitation on Friday.
The same outlook predicts increased chances of above normal temperatures eastern half of the state, elsewhere equal chances of above or below temperatures are expected.
Seasonal Drought Outlook: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/sdo_summary.html Weather Forecast Office California Service Area-Products: http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/forecasts.php El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Conditions and Weekly Discussion (including La Niña): http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf Sign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post!

BLOG ROUND-UP: Facing extinction II: Making hard decisions; Bringing big and small farms together to manage water; Peter Gleick on science and politics; Conservation relies on profitability; and more ….
However these decisions will rely on answers to one sweeping question: When is a species, in fact, extinct?
What if it no longer exists in its natural habitat or in the wild?
… ” Read more from the California Water Blog here: Facing extinction II: Making hard decisions Bringing big and small farms together to manage water: Jelena Jezdimirovic writes, “Agriculture is by far the biggest water user in the San Joaquin Valley, accounting for 89 percent of the region’s annual net water use.
… ” Read more from the PPIC blog here: Bringing big and small farms together to manage water Peter Gleick on science and politics: “The ascendancy of Donald Trump to the presidency, the selection of his cabinet and senior advisers, and the actions of the GOP-dominated legislative branch have all raised new serious questions and concerns about the role of science, research, and analysis in national law and policy.
… ” Read more from the Growing Returns blog here: Conservation relies on profitability Beyond the drought: Water conservation consciousness for the long-term: Wholly H2O writes, “In California, the 2011-2017 drought had some stunning silver linings, notably a more acute personal awareness of water use.
Scott Valley is one of those “beautiful places.” … ” Read more from the California Fisheries blog here: Scott River fall run chinook salmon See also: Shasta River fall run chinook salmon Modern flows for the Sacramento Valley: The Northern California Water Association blog writes, “A concerted effort is underway by water suppliers to provide functional and purposeful flows for fish and wildlife throughout the Sacramento Valley.
* New Melones hits 2 MAF: Alex Breitler writes, “New Melones Lake soared past 2 million acre-feet of storage over the past few days, a level that no one thought possible (well, I certainly didn’t) a mere six months ago.
* New Melones hits 2 MAF NRDC sues EPA to hold stormwater polluters accountable: Becky Hammer writes, “NRDC filed two lawsuits this week against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to enforce the Clean Water Act against stormwater polluters in the Baltimore and Los Angeles areas.
Sign up for daily emails and get all the Notebook’s aggregated and original water news content delivered to your email box by 9AM.

At Bamboo Gardens in Palm Harbor, the stalks are just barely starting to sprout.
“It’s important that it gets regular water and the soil stays evenly moist all the time.
But that’s up to mother nature and we know the weather can do whatever it feels like," she said with a sigh.
Smith and her husband were forced to tap into a long-unused well on their bamboo farm to keep the plants doused.
“You can’t stop to worry about it or think about it because you can’t do anything about it.
So you just have to keep your fingers crossed,” she added.
The drought is forcing businesses across Tampa Bay to get creative.
“We don’t have any bahia grass because it’s dry and people don’t like that.” Usually Bolet keeps 5 different types of sod in stock.
“I could do the rain dance for you but I won’t,” Smith said with a laugh.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District suggests checking with your local city or county to make sure you’re following water restrictions for your neighborhood.

Local drought watch persists; spillway project nearing completion.
Typically, the rain gauge at Lake Ogletree, Auburn’s primary water source, reaches nearly 15 inches between February and March.
This year, only 9.4 inches fell on the lake, according to Eric Carson, Auburn’s Water Resource Management director.
The Auburn Water Works Board enacted a Phase I drought watch April 21, issuing voluntary restrictions for water customers.
Along with dryer-than-usual conditions, the department is rounding out construction of a new spillway to replace the original 75-year-old one.
Usage also shot up earlier than usual this year, adding to the need for the drought watch, Carson said.
Warmer weather affecting lake The lake will continue to drop as warmer weather continues, allowing workers to finish concrete work on the spillway within the next four to six weeks.
“We’re not going to call the watch off.
He also emphasized the impact of watering at the proper times, between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., and on alternating days.
“ For some reason, a lot of people like to water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and our demand will go through the roof on those days,” Carson said.